Thursday, May 21, 2009 is a travel day for the Mets as they return from the west coast swing of their current road trip. Â Games resume with the opening salvo of inter-league play Friday night at 7:10pm when the Mets visit Fenway Park to begin a 3 game series with the Boston Red Sox.
The pitching match up Friday features Johan Santana (5-2, 1.36)
versus Daisuke Matsuzaka (0-1, 12.76).
Santana is coming off his worst start of this season in which he allowed 4 earned runs, the most earned runs he has allowed since 7/17/08 at Cincinnati. Â He will have had 5 days rest prior to the start. Â This season with 5 days rest Santana is 2-1, 0.45 in 3 starts with a WHIP of 0.80 and a K/BB ratio of 15/1. Â His career record at Fenway Park is 1-3, 6.89 in 15 2/3 innings spread among 3 starts and one relief appearance. Â His most recent appearance at Fenway was 9/21/06, a 6-0 loss by the Twins in which Santana started, allowing 4 runs, 2 earned, over 5 innings.
Matsuzaka has not pitched since 4/14/09 at Oakland, a no-decision in which he allowed 5 earned runs in 1 inning before being removed with a right shoulder strain which landed him on the DL the next day. Â Matsuzaka has never faced the Mets in a regular season game.
Kevin Youkilis returned from the DL Wednesday, and as the Mets arrive the Red Sox finally find themselves able to field the lineup they anticipated using the majority of this season, with
- CF Ellsbury
- 2B Pedroia
- DH Ortiz
- 1B Youkilis
- RF Drew
- LF Bay
- 3B Lowell
- C Varitek
- SS Lugo
which as of Tuesday is a lineup they have only used 3 times so far this season.
16 comments
TheDirtySanchez
5/21/2009-7:01pm at 7:01 pm (UTC -4)
ugh…this is not going to be pretty
metsfan4decades
5/21/2009-7:02pm at 7:02 pm (UTC -4)
Can’t wait for this series. Looking at that Boston lineup, I would normally thing, uh oh. However…Big Papi is really struggling, who know how Youkilis will be coming back.
Then again, with our current anemic offense, it’s all gonna come down to pitching.
First game match up with Johan should be advantage Mets.
trs86
5/21/2009-7:05pm at 7:05 pm (UTC -4)
I think we win 1, hopefully. I honestly expected today to see the Mets make a move. I guess with Reyes “better” and Murphy manning 1B they are going to wait and see. Hopefully Sheff is better (who would have hopped for that a few weeks ago?) and the offense can score a few more runs.
dentulous
5/21/2009-7:11pm at 7:11 pm (UTC -4)
yup, we should win one at the most. But then again, I thought we should have one at least one from LA.
I just hope Wright and Beltran don’t get burned out from carrying this team, with Reyes and Delgado out.
Man, Reyes and Cora out….who could have seen that coming?
casestreet
5/21/2009-11:35pm at 11:35 pm (UTC -4)
Good thing for us we have our top 2 going against Boston.
I wonder if Maine will take Redding’s spot.
Maine last pitched on Tuesday, so he’d be on schedule to start on Sunday.
Then the rotation would be:
Santana
Big Pelf
Maine
Livan
Redding
charliebfree
5/21/2009-7:05pm at 7:05 pm (UTC -4)
yeah, dirty, it could get scary up in the boston. the road trip started out so promising…they need to take 2 of 3 to finish the trip with a .500 record.
charliebfree
5/21/2009-7:07pm at 7:07 pm (UTC -4)
I’ve been out all day, what’s the story with Reyes? Is he getting his calf checked out in NY? Have there been any updates?
gravediggerhebner
5/21/2009-7:11pm at 7:11 pm (UTC -4)
Short answer is he is day-to-day with tendonitis in the back of his right knee.
For the long version, scroll down to the “Jose’s knee” entry.
TheDirtySanchez
5/21/2009-7:11pm at 7:11 pm (UTC -4)
grave has an awsome post about that below..check it out
gravediggerhebner
5/21/2009-7:16pm at 7:16 pm (UTC -4)
Not me. I was psyched to have Cora on the roster to give the occasional rest to Reyes and to spell/take over for Castillo depending on how he shook out. I can’t really get on the management for not having an ML ready back up for the back up.
Allegedly Reyes will be taking some Advil and beginning his process of learning how to play with pain tomorrow night.
trs86
5/21/2009-7:17pm at 7:17 pm (UTC -4)
Met’s fans. Have you seen what has happen to us with injuries the last few years? How many backups have goten injured?
dentulous
5/21/2009-7:19pm at 7:19 pm (UTC -4)
sounds good, but I just hope it wont aggravate the injury and result in some tear or something. Man, we need our core back and healthy
gravediggerhebner
5/21/2009-7:21pm at 7:21 pm (UTC -4)
I’m no doctor, but according to news reports I’ve read he is not in position to make anything worse, it’s purely about pain tolerance.
gravediggerhebner
5/21/2009-7:22pm at 7:22 pm (UTC -4)
True, but I can’t just keep expecting it to happen, to me that would be like expecting the Mets to barely lose the division again simply because it’s happened recently. They shall overcome!
metsfan4decades
5/21/2009-7:37pm at 7:37 pm (UTC -4)
Yes, it’s just insane. Is it really bad luck, poor depth planning, or a combo of the two?
You can’t really plan for say, your SS and back up SS to be out at the same time. How many times does that happen? And you can’t stock minor leagues with 2 plus players at every position (other than pitching) just in case.
It’s just crazy. I’m beginning to feel like I did last year when LFs were going down like flies. It’s a ‘what next’ mindset…..
charliebfree
5/21/2009-8:05pm at 8:05 pm (UTC -4)
funny stuff. we all know he’s sort of a baby.